The New York Times covers LibraryThing

It’s everthing we could have hoped for—sympathetic, book-focused (albeit in the business section), member-focused (way to go kageeh), and with none of the common misunderstandings.* I knew they were going to run something, but I thought it was focused on tagging, with LibraryThing as the first example. But it’s all about LibraryThing. And boy is it positive!

It goes without saying that I’m a bookish guy. But most of my non-book reading has shifted to the Web. I don’t get magazines anymore, except National Geographic, and my opinion of the “mainstream media” is not what it was when I read three papers a day and had never heard of an RSS feed. But the Times is the stable point. I read it from an absurdly young age. I have flash-bulb memories of a half-dozen front pages. I have the edition from my son’s birth wrapped up for preservation better than the Codex Sinaiticus. When, as the Economist** said, the last newspaper reader tosses aside the last newspaper, it’ll be the Times, he’ll be me, and he’ll keep it in a pile in the living room for months—dipping in now and then—until his wife threatens to recycle it, and he moves it surreptitiously to his office.

So Vivat New York Times, and thanks for noticing us.

*LibraryThing is for dating. LibraryThing is about competition. LibraryThing is about selling books. LibraryThing is a tech story, etc.**A magazine I’d like to get, but it’s so expensive!

I read some of the articles about Leprosy patient Bernard Punikaia. I photographed him in 1982 at the height of his fight with the Federal Government. Is there a memorial site that exists for him or the member’s of Kalaupapa? I have photographs that may add information to anyone interested.